So a new reports says the Main Library is both too big, with thousands of square feet of unused or underused space, and there’s nothing that can be done about in the short term because it doesn’t make any financial sense to do so until the real estate market recovers.
Let’s think about that for a second — a library that has too much space. Having spent way too much time in university libraries in my life, that notion seems quite bizarre to me. Yes, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library isn’t a university library but it still serves a growing county’s population and the main branch is located in its hub. Perhaps what the library really needs is a more coherent strategic plan going forward since whatever it was doing in the past was obviously not the answer.
Update with additional thought: What does a public library in 2020 or 2030 even look like and what is it suppose to do? Have space for computers with access to specialized databases of information certainly. Hold some (older) reference materials in book or microfilm/microfiche form probably. But beyond that it gets much less obvious to me…
